Henry Thomas Buckle

Background

He was born in 1821 in Lee, London, United Kingdom, son of Thomas Henry Buckle, a wealthy London merchant. He had two sisters. After his father's death in January 1840, he spent some time with his mother on the continent (1840 - 1844).

Education

Owing to ill health he was educated at home, and the originality of his thought owned much to the fact that he had no formal education.

Career

Buckle first conceived the idea of writing his History of Civilization at the age of 18. The six years which followed were occupied in writing and rewriting, altering and revising the first volume, it was titled the History of Civilization in England and was published in June 1857. In his History of Civilization in England Buckle argued that in order to develop a scientific study of history, it is necessary to take into account not only how man modified the natural world but also how the natural world modified man.

It was under the immediate impression of his loss that he concluded a review he was writing of J. S. Mill's Essay on Liberty with an argument for immortality, based on the yearning of the affections to regain communion with the beloved dead, - on the impossibility of standing up and living, if we believed the separation were final.

The review appeared in Fraser's Magazine, May 1859, and is to be found also in the Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works (1872).

The second volume of his history was published in May 1861.

Soon after he left England for the East, in order to recruit his spirits and restore his health.

From the end of October 1861 to the beginning of March 1862 was spent by him in Egypt, from which he went over the desert of Sinai and of Edom to Syria, reaching Jerusalem on the 19th of April 1862.

After staying there eleven days, he set out for Europe by Beyrout, but at Nazareth he was attacked by fever; and he died at Damascus on the 29th of May 1862.

Buckle's fame, which must rest wholly on his History of Civilization in England, is no longer what it was in the decade following his death.

He sometimes altered and contorted the facts; he very often unduly simplified his problems; he was very apt when he had proved a favourite opinion true to infer it to be the whole truth.

On the other hand, many of his ideas have passed into the common literary stock, and have been more precisely elaborated by later writers on sociology and history; and though his own work is now somewhat neglected, its influence was immensely valuable in provoking further research and speculation.

Achievements

• His the most famous work is unfinished History of Civilization. His aim in this work was, first to state his general principles and the general laws that govern the course of human progress - and secondly, to exemplify these principles and laws through the histories of certain nations characterized by prominent and peculiar features - Spain and Scotland, the United States and Germany.

Works

More photos

• book

  • History of Civilization in England
  • History of Civilization in England

Views

His History of Civilization in England reflects his chief ideas - (1) That, owing partly to the want of ability in historians, and partly to the complexity of social phenomena, extremely little had as yet been done towards discovering the principles which govern the character and destiny of nations, or, in other words, towards establishing a science of history; (2) That, while the theological dogma of predestination is a barren hypothesis beyond the province of knowledge, and the metaphysical dogma of free will rests on an erroneous belief in the infallibility of consciousness, it is proved by science, and especially by statistics, that human actions are governed by lav's as fixed and regular as those which rule in the physical world; (3) That climate, soil, food, and the aspects of nature are the primary causes of intellectual progress, -the first three indirectly, through determining the accumulation and distribution of wealth, and the last by directly influencing the accumulation and distribution of thought, the imagination being stimulated and the understanding subdued when the phenomena of the external world are sublime and terrible, the understanding being emboldened and the imagination curbed when they are small and feeble; (4) That the great division between European and non-European civilization turns on the fact that in Europe man is stronger than nature, and that elsewhere nature is stronger than man, the consequence of which is that in Europe alone has man subdued nature to his service; (5) That the advance of European civilization is characterized by a continually diminishing influence of physical laws, and a continually increasing influence of mental laws; (6) That the mental laws which regulate the progress of society cannot be discovered by the metaphysical method, that is, by the introspective study of the individual mind, but only by such a comprehensive survey of facts as will enable us to eliminate disturbances, that is, by the method of averages; (7) That human progress has been due, not to moral agencies, which are stationary, and which balance one another in such a manner that their influence is unfelt over any long period, but to intellectual activity, which has been constantly varying and advancing:-" The actions of individuals are greatly affected by their moral feelings and passions; but these being antagonistic to the passions and feelings of other individuals, are balanced by them, so that their effect is, in the great average of human affairs, nowhere to be seen, and the total actions of mankind, considered as a whole, are left to be regulated by the total knowledge of which mankind is possessed "; (8) That individual efforts are insignificant in the great mass of human affairs, and that great men, although they exist, and must " at present " be looked upon as disturbing forces, are merely the creatures of the age to which they belong; (9) That religion, literature and government are, at the best, the products and not the causes of civilization; (10) That the progress of civilization varies directly as " scepticism, " the disposition to doubt and to investigate, and inversely as " credulity " or " the protective spirit, " a disposition to maintain, without examination, established beliefs and practices. Unfortunately Buckle either could not define, or cared not to define, the general conceptions with which he worked, such as those denoted by the terms " civilization, " " history, " " science, " " law, " " scepticism, " and " protective spirit"; the consequence is that his arguments are often fallacies.

Personality

Buckle was mostly deemed to be “a good conversationalist” because of his “deep knowledge of a wide range of subjects”. On the other hand, some thought him “tedious or egotistical” with a tendency “to dominate conversations.”

Buckle's historiographical method was influenced by John Stuart Mill's empiricism and by Auguste Comte's belief that society should be studied through the application of scientific procedures.

He spent money prudently with two exceptions: fine cigars and his collection of 22, 000 books. At age nineteen, Buckle first gained distinction as a chess player. He was known as one of the best in the world.

Connections

Although love for his mother dominated his life, there were other instances of his love for women. At seventeen, he fell in love with a cousin and “challenged a man to whom she was engaged”. He fell for another cousin, but his parents objected.

Father:

Thomas Henry Buckle

Mother:

Jane Middleton of Yorkshire

Sister:

Mary